My favorite childhood story would be from middle school.

There was the girl Shirley. She was big... not fat, just tall and muscular, not someone to mess with. Shirley had it out for me from the get-go.

She was consistently picking on me about my clothes or shoes. She wanted me to be miserable. She intimidated me something terrible.

At recess I loved playing tether-ball, but Shirley would always butt in line ahead of me and sometimes I never got to play. Other times, I would have to play against her and loose - facing further bullying from her.

Then one day she started heckling me in the cafeteria in front of my friends at lunch. I was at the breaking point. All I could think of was telling her off or throwing my tray at her. I thought terrible things toward her. She was so bad my friends were uncomfortable and feeling sorry for me. They were all significantly smaller than her (like me) and none of us stood up.

For some reason, I turned to her and simply said "I have no idea why you hate me so much, but I've always just wanted to be your friend. I would never treat you so bad!" I got up and my friends and I walked away. She looked dumb-founded.

That was my first lesson of peace over war. As much as I wanted nothing more that to harm her in some awful way, I made a simple statement, full of compassion - and she became a friend. There was no hiding from her in the hallways, no dreading playing tether-ball or lunch. We simply moved on and forgot everything mean that was passed from her to me.

Peace,
Trina

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While my head is reeling from the Monday Madness around here it's hard to grasp onto two singular thoughts.  This week, though, I do have 2 thoughts really swimming around in my head.

Thought #1:  I haven't read a book since I closed the coffee shop.  I know it sounds hard to believe, but I think the last book I read was the DaVinci Code.  I suppose the only read I read it was because I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie.  I was very happy about both (that rarely happens BTW)  Last week I started reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.  I finished books one and two by Tuesday.  While I wait for books three and four to be borrowable, I found that I was so interested in the series that I actually read books 1 and 2 again.

I've never done that - read a book twice?  Me? Totally out of character.  I can't explain why I read them twice, but the second time around they were as good as the first time.  Then, to my surprise, the Twilight movie played last night on Showtime... the movie sucked.  I've heard that the second movie is much better, something about a new producer or director or something...  Gosh I hope books 3 and 4 are good.

Thought #2:  Why? Oh! Why? Can't Spring be here already?  I want to start my garden, plant my flower beds, and bask in the warm glow of the sun.  I'm ready to watch the daffodils and crocuses bloom.  Today was a real teaser here.  It started out gloomy - high winds and heavy rain - then the sun came out and I loved every brilliant minute of it.  I think it got into the high sixty's or low seventies today -Truly gorgeous.

Happy Tuesday!

--Trina

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This week on BlogDumps Top Sites Tuesday:

Do we do enough? Should we do more?

With natural Disasters like the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the hurricane in Louisiana, and the earthquake Haiti, are we doing enough to help other people? In our daily lives we all seem to have our own natural disasters – does that prevent for helping others?

I can totally understand natural disasters in our own lives. Everyday we seem to have our own natural disasters and it seems that it takes something ad huge as the Earthquake in Haiti to remind us that we are not the only people on this planet. Unfortunately too, it reminds us that we are much more fortunate and that our silly little daily disasters are nothing more than trivial.

I shudder to think about putting myself in their shoes for even a second. To know that everything I once knew to be constant, friends, family, buildings, was now missing and lost - how could I possibly handle such a dreadful thing?

People are resilient. Through the worst of circumstances, they seem to find their way. New homes will be built. New Families will be made. New friendships will develop. Though everything in life is hard right now, it will get better.

Now back to our topic this week, Helping Others. I find that some people seem to be born to help others, rushing at the drop of a pin to a disaster zone where hundreds of thousands of people need. I am almost embarrassed to think think that I am not one of those people. I do admire the effort these amazing helpers are able to make. I am awed by their commitment and determination and by their ability to go to those disaster zones without a second thought to their safety.

I, on the other hand, can hardly cross a tall bridge, let alone face helpless people in a foreign country or state. I do what I can to help others - friends and family especially. Not that they all need my help, but I like to think that I am helping even when they don't know it.

To answer the questions Do we do enough? Should we do more? We do what we can and always strive to do more.

Trina

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